Illustration of Swissto12 HummingSat satellite in geostationary orbit for Inmarsat-8. Photo: Swissto12

Small GEO manufacturer Swissto12 awarded MDA Space a contract to build antenna systems for three HummingSat satellites in the Inmarsat-8 program.

Under the contract announced Tuesday, MDA Space will design and build L-band navigation antennas and design and configure the packaging concepts for the HummingSat Geostationary Orbit (GEO) smallsat platform. The antennas will be built, assembled and tested at MDA Space’s satellite production facility in Montreal.

Inmarsat, now a Viasat company, selected Swissto12 in 2023 to develop three Inmarsat-8 satellites for its network that provides global L‑band safety services. The Swissto12 HummingSat satellite platform is about five times smaller than a conventional GEO satellite at 1.5 cubic meters in volume.

“MDA Space has an established reputation for leveraging our best-in-class design and manufacturing capabilities to support safety critical missions and we look forward to working with Swissto12 to extend these capabilities,” said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space. “Our track record of delivering on multiple constellation missions to both government and commercial partners positions us to further capitalize on repeat orders in this growing GEO smallsat market.”

MDA has a number of major contracts ongoing — Telesat Lightspeed, Globalstar’s constellation refresh, a mystery NGSO customer, and antennas subcontracts for both York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin’s work for the Space Development Agency (SDA).